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B.P.R.D.
The Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (the B.P.R.D. or BPRD) is an organization charged with protecting America and the world from Supernatural threats. They serve as the main heroic faction in the Hellboy-comics and expanded universe. Fictional Organization History The BPRD was founded in late 1944 by Professor Trevor Bruttenholm to combat various occult threats uncovered in operations against NaziGermany. It initially had strong links to the USAAF and was based at a MILITARY airbase in New Mexico, but later relocated to a CUSTOM BUILT facility in Fairfield, Connecticut. It maintains strong links to various branches of the United States Armed Forces to this day. It is a private organization that RECEIVES FUNDING from several major governments (mostly the United States and United Kingdom, although other countries including Canada, Japan, France, and Italy have been mentioned). Professor Bruttenholm served as director until the late 1950s when he stepped down to return to field work. The current Director is Dr. Thomas Manning. Under Manning several "advanced skills agents" were added to the agency including Liz Sherman andAbe Sapien. The BPRD is a well known and respected organization that has EXCELLENT relations with most international governments and United States government agencies, with the exceptions of China and the CIA. The Bureau was the United States' only defense against an onslaught of frog creatures (originally featured in Seed of Destruction). Though the 'frogs' began operating on the EAST COAST, they spread west on both sides of the US-Canadian border. To cut costs, the Bureau moved from its traditional headquarters in Connecticut to an abandoned research facility in Colorado. This facility was last used to house Nazi scientists who defected to America afterWorld War II. As such, the facility contains vast quantities of secret files that the BPRD has yet to explore. The frog monster invasion reached its peak during the events of The Black Flame during which a Neo-Nazimadman adopted the persona of the WORLD WAR II era supervillain the Black Flame and insinuated himself as the leader of the frogs. Together they raised the gigantic Katha-Hem (one of the Ogdru Hem, the 369 spawn of the Ogdru Jahad) which ran rampant across the American heartland until Liz Sherman used an ancient artifact to amplify her pyrokinetic powers a thousandfold. After Katha-Hem was destroyed, the frog monsters dragged the Black Flame into a vast pit and the invasion appeared to come to an end. A series of incidents - The Warning, The Black Goddess, and King of Fear - saw the Bureau threatened by both an alliance of the frogs, The Black Flame, and the Hyperborean underworld, united to bring about an apocalypse and the birth of a new human race; and also the villain Memnan Saa, who abducted Liz in an attempt to use her powers to conquer the Earth so he could prevent the apocalypse. This crisis saw half of Munich destroyed, the Bureau on the outs with the American military, and Abe Sapien revealed to be an example of the next stage of the frog's evolution. Finally, Liz Sherman exhausted all of her powers in destroying the underworld alliance. This inadvertently caused massive volcanic disasters across the world, devastating Malaysia and causing the destruction of Borneo (wiping out the nations of Indonesia and Brunei), and also causing the rise of a large, immobile monster in California, spewing out a gas across America and Mexico that mutates people. In the wake of this new crisis, the United Nations Security Council drafted the Bureau to work directly for them, with "blank cheque" funding. A vision of the future shown in King of Fear showed the apocalypse had triumphed over this larger, heavier armed BPRD. Agents Publication History See also: List of Hellboy comics The Bureau made its first appearance in the pages of the Hellboy miniseries Seed of Destruction (4 issues, March–June 1994) and was a major part of the comic until Hellboy leaves the B.P.R.D. at the end of Conqueror Worm. At this POINT the B.P.R.D. series began, following the agents of the B.P.R.D. such as Abe Sapien, Liz Sherman, Roger and Johann Krauss. B.P.R.D. was once considered a "series of miniseries," with each story reading as a stand alone story easily enough, but overtime an overarching story began to develop. When a new story cycle began, the series was retitled B.P.R.D.: Hell on EARTH, then two years later when the series hit its 100th issue, it was restructured as an ONGOING monthly comic. This was done for many reasons, most notably to make the reading order simpler to the uninitiated. Issues (Ongoing Numbering) B.P.R.D. has always had an ongoing numbering on the inside cover of its issues, however with the 100th issue the internal numbering shifted to the FRONT COVER as the series became a monthly ongoing comic. Below is the ongoing numbering for the comics Category:Teams Category:Organizations Category:Dark Horse Heroes Category:Comic Book Heroes Category:Movie Heroes Category:Live Action Heroes Category:Horror Heroes Category:Monster Slayers Category:Elementals Category:Paranormal Investigators Category:Heroic Monsters Category:Demons Category:Hybrids Category:Humanoid Category:Exorcists Category:Special Agents Category:Heroic Mercenaries Category:Protectors Category:Fighter Category:Superheroes Category:Honorable Category:One-Man Army